News and Opportunities

Upcoming Webinar – 21st Century Learning at Private Schools

You are invited to a complimentary webinar to hear Julie Evans discuss the Speak Up 2012 data for private K-12 schools. Since 2003, the annual findings from the Speak Up Project have impacted education technology policies and fueled a movement on the importance of including private school views in education planning and decisions.

In this complimentary webinar, you will:
• Learn the role of digital tools in 21st century education
• Discover shared technology needs and wants
• Cultivate a vision to leverage education technology

Register today! Have a schedule conflict? We will send everyone who registers a link to the recording within a week after the event.

New Video – Planning for Online Summer School

By watching this video, you will learn:
• What online options your school can offer this summer
• How a small staff can offer a broad range of courses
• Ways it can benefit students, schools, and finances

Signup for the Digital Learning Day Webcast

Please join Gov. Bob Wise and the Alliance for Excellent Education on February 6, 2013 to celebrate the wave of innovation sweeping across the nation’s schools. Specifically, this national celebration will culminate in the Digital Town Hall from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (ET), which will focus on how great teaching, combined with effective technology, makes a positive impact on improving America’s schools, particularly those that serve high-risk and high-poverty populations.

New Year, New Things

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.” – Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT)

There is something wonderful about a New Year. We gravitate toward the hope that it offers. We embrace the “do over” that it brings. There is value in looking forward, pressing on, trying harder, and seeking better things.

This is the encouragement we find from the Apostle Paul in Philippians. Look ahead to the future. There are new things there. Embrace it.

Meditate on these three thoughts as you enter 2013:

– Don’t let your mistakes define you (Proverbs 24:16). You are a child of God, not the sum of your mistakes. God sees what He wants to make you through the power of Jesus Christ.
– Don’t let the unknown limit you (Jeremiah 29:11). Our fear of the future should not limit the things God wants to accomplish. Nothing will catch Him by surprise; He has orchestrated it all for you good.
– Don’t forget that God is with you (Lamentations 2:22-24). You will not face a single minute of 2013 alone. God abides with you.

Our prayer is that 2013 is a blessed year marked by God’s presence and leadership.

News from Around the Web

Blended courses, which can often be larger than regular classes, can save money while broadening course offerings, advocates say. The Parthenon Group, education and business consultants in Boston, analyzed digital learning costs earlier this year, estimating that blended learning may cost $7,600 to $10,200 per student, while traditional classroom instruction costs about $10,000.

The fast rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is garnering a lot of attention. Coursera, at Stanford, for example, has existed just a few months and now has 214 courses attracting 2.4 million students from 196 countries. MOOCs are vastly extending the reach of professors at some of the world’s best universities, particularly at Stanford, Harvard, M.I.T., Yale, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Duke.